Help Winterproof Your Home for the Holidays

Author: Emma Grace Crumbley, Entomologist

When the weather gets colder, insects don’t just go away. In cold seasons, insects either find a safe place to overwinter, which is their way of waiting out the weather, or these pests travel inside your home where it’s guaranteed to be warmer than the world outside.

To prevent these unwanted guests, there are a few things to do to help pest-proof your home for the holidays:

1. Check the Halls...

…for unwanted entry points! Insect pests like cockroaches, stink bugs, and house centipedes only need a small opening to get inside your home. If your doors and windows don’t seal all the way, or if your home has foundation cracks, gaps, and crevices, insects can easily take advantage of these entry points and easily infest your home.

2. Walking Around the Christmas Tree

Just like firewood can accidentally bring pests into your home, live trees and wreaths can do the same. For insects trying to escape the cold weather, tree branches, bark, and pine needle clusters can provide some shelter from the cold. When shopping for live foliage, inspect trees, wreaths, and garlands thoroughly for pests and shake them out before bringing them inside.

3. Chim Chim-neys and Yule Logs

If your home has a fireplace with an open chimney, you may be inviting pests in without realizing it. Not only are chimneys easy entry points for bugs, but firewood stored inside can sometimes harbor insects and lead to an infestation. Keep your chimney closed when not in use, clean your chimney out regularly, and always check your firewood and wood piles for unwanted holiday guests.

4. Inspect Up on the Housetop

One of the reasons homeowners see more bugs in the fall and winter is that they accidentally disturb the pests that have been living in their homes all year when taking down and putting up decorations. Pests like spiders, roaches, stink bugs, and Asian lady beetles often infest the home through the attic or uppermost part of the structure, where many homes store their holiday decorations. Since heat rises, these areas are the warmest throughout the year, and homeowners usually visit their attics less than the other areas of the home, so these spaces go undisturbed throughout the year. Moving in and out of attics, basements, and garages to get holiday decorations out of storage bothers these pests and drives them to find other places around the home to hide.

5. Call a Pro Pro Pro

Add professional pest control to your wish list when the holiday season has you stressed. Pest management professionals, like the highly trained technicians at Mosquito Squad, can help identify the type of pests you’re dealing with, locate cryptic entry points around your home, and create a control plan to manage unwanted holiday pests. Mosquito Squad's Invader Guard pest package offers a range of treatment plans to control seasonal insect invaders. Call us today for a free quote.